Microsoft has bought a data warehouse appliance maker for an undisclosed sum, which it will integrate into SQL Server.

"Integrating DATAllegro's non-proprietary hardware platform and flexible software architecture into Microsoft SQL Server will provide customers with the strongest offering in the market," said Stuart Frost, CEO of DATAllegro.

In a statement Microsoft said: "DATAllegro's patent-pending technology is designed for complex workloads including high concurrency and mixed queries. DATAllegro is one of the few data warehouse appliances built on a non-proprietary hardware platform including Dell and Bull servers and EMC storage. This flexible architecture makes it ideally suited to integrate with Microsoft SQL Server."

The firm was backed by Intel Capital, which welcomed the acquisition.

CEO Steve Ballmer claimed Microsoft will be the world's number one enterprise software supplier.

"We see the most fantastic growth opportunity of all time in the enterprise. I think palpably we are close to being able to claim we are the number one enterprise software company in the world, which nobody would have been able to say 20 years ago," he said.